Comparison of relief funds available for obligation after Jan. 31, 1938, with obligations incurred from July 1, 1937 to Jan. 31, 1938 and total funds available for obligation during the fiscal year 1938, under the provisions of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1937-Continued 10 Includes administration of U. S. Employment Service. 11 Includes $7,500,000 transferred to regular appropriation of the War Department. 12 Excess of credits in connection with adjustments in obligations incurred prior to June 30, 1937. 13 Represents the amount continued available June 30, 1937, less $163,000 transferred to the Public Health Service. 14 All housing projects and most of the funds available there for were transferred to the U. S. Housing Authority on Nov. 1, 1937. 15 In addition to the amount shown here there was $4,400,000 in process of transfer to the appropriation in the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1937 from earlier appropriations, making the total general reserve $42,222,000 as of Feb. 10, 1938. This will be increased as additional funds become available for transfer to an unallocated status. 16 This represents only allocated funds available for obligation by the agencies holding the same. unobligated funds on January 31, 1938, were as follows: Total [In thousands] Available for obligation without reallocation.. Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. Funds no longer available for obligation by agency holding the same but which are available for reallocation.. Unallocated balances: $383, 727 $38, 351 Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1936. 9, 183 Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1937. 4, 146 375, 470 427, 150 Total under Emergency Relief Appropriation Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937. In process of transfer from other appropriation acts... 810, 877 4, 400 Total all available appropriations.. 815, 277 17 The Treasury reports show obligations incurred from July 1, 1937, to January 31, 1938, as $890,406,000. The difference is due partly to adjustments in obligations entered on the books of the Treasury prior to June 30, 1937. Adjustments other agencies holding funds no longer available for obligation without reallocation.. Unobligated balances of allocations made on or before June 30, 1937, and continued available without reallocation: Unobligated balances of allocations under the Emergency Appropriation Act of 1937 Total unobligated balances on Jan. 31, 1938_ $29, 603 31, 621 61, 224 322, 503 383, 727 19 Of this amount $52,500,000 represents the statutory allocation for flood control leaving $1,690,895,000 available to the President. The $1,743,395,000 was made available as follows' Adjustments after June 30, 1937 accounts of other agencies holding funds no longer available for obligation without reallocation: From funds to meet the emergency and necessity for relief in stricken agricul- 1, 150 1,050 Fourth Deficiency Act, fiscal year 1933: From funds for National Industrial Recovery Act approved Feb. 15, 1934.. *Of this amount $109,712,000 was continued available after June 30, 1937 without necessity for reallocation by the President. Senator HALE. Can you tell us briefly what the figures show? Unobligated balances on January 31, 1938 The next column is headed: Reserved for allocation after January 31, 1938. In other words, various agencies indicated will get the money tentatively set aside for them. Senator HALE. What are those balances? Mr. BELL. The Works Progress Administration will get approximately $343,000,000 out of the money available, and the Farm Security Administration will get $26,000,000. Senator HALE. That is from former appropriations? Mr. BELL. That is from the billion and a half dollars appropriated in the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1937, plus the unobligated balances carried over; yes, sir. Senator HALE. So the amount you have on hand at the present time is how much? Mr. BELL. Are you talking about the Farm Security Administration now? Senator HALE. No, no; the whole W. P. A. Mr. BELL. The Works Progress Administration had available on January 31, 1938, to last for 5 months, $545,000,000. Senator TOWNSEND. Do you mean by that that there is that much available which has not been committed? Mr. BELL. That is right; not obligated. Senator ADAMS. At the beginning of the fiscal year, when this billion and a half, plus unobligated balances, became available, there was a certain amount of unobligated balances. What amount of those unobligated balances has been expended up to this time? Let me also, in the same inquiry, ask whether the unobligated balances have been expended in the same proportion that money has been drawn from the billion and a half. Mr. BELL. It is a little difficult to separate them, Senator Adams, because all have gone into one pot. Senator ADAMS. What I am asking is, you understand, as to whether or not the unexpended balances are being carried along, and the money drawn out of the appropriation. Mr. BELL. It is being drawn out of the billion and a half fund, plus the unobligated balances which have been transferred from previous appropriations. In my statement before the House committee, I set that up like this: Direct appropriation_. [000 omitted] Unobligated balances continued available to agencies holding the $1,500,000 same.. Unobligated balances available for transfer and reallocation (revised estimate). 109, 700 133, 700 Senator ADAMS. Of the $109,000,000 that was the unobligated balance at that time, what does your report show is now available, or was available on the 31st of January? Mr. BELL. We can put that figure in the record; but it is quite a job to go through the various allocations. Senator ADAMS. If it is not too big a job, I wish you would do that. Mr. BELL. I could not do it sitting here at the table, but I shall be glad to put it in the record. I find that the balance remaining unobligated from this $109,000,000 was $61,000,000 on January 31, 1938. Senator HALE. How much money is available from the appropriation and from the unobligated balances to spend during the rest of this fiscal year? Mr. BELL. As a total? Senator HALE. Yes. Mr. BELL. There is $815,000,000 available for obligation after January 31, 1938 for all agencies including W. P. A. and Farm Security. Senator ADAMS. Is there any other information you can give us, Mr. Bell, that will help us, that you have available there? Mr. BELL. That is all I brought with me, Senator. Senator NYE. May I make an inquiry, Senator? Has a definite commitment been made to the Farm Security Administration of these unobligated balances as yet? Mr. BELL. That Administration has been promised up to $30,000,000, Senator. Senator ADAMS. That $30,000,000 comes out of the $42,000,000 that the President had subject to his disposition? Mr. BELL. That is right; yes, sir. Senator ADAMS. So that when he makes that allocation, if he makes it, there will be just $12,000,000 left? Mr. BELL. That is right. Senator HALE. Are there any other funds that could be used by the W. P. A.? Mr. BELL. No, sir; these are all the funds. You spoke a while ago about these various departmental projects; but I want to make it clear that they are the same as W. P. A. projects, and if you stop the projects in the departments that will just throw that many people out of work and over on W. P. A. These projects are approved by the W. P. A. Senator HALE. But have they not enough money already allotted to them to take care of them? Mr. BELL. For the present program of employment; yes. If the W. P. A. finds a project in the War Department that would be a good W. P. A. project on which to take some of these 500,000 additional employees, then they would allot some of the $250,000,000 to the War Department to carry on that project. Some question was directed at the $47,000,000 given to the Corps of Engineers for flood control. Those are essentially W. P. A. projects. Furthermore, $45,000,000 of that amount was earmarked by the Congress for flood-control purposes in the War Department Civil Appropriation Act. Senator HALE. Do they employ entirely W. P. A. workers? Mr. BELL. Yes, sir. Except that 5 percent may be devoted to supervision. These are not necessarily in need of relief. Senator HALE. To administration? Mr. BELL. Yes, sir; but, largely speaking, it is for W. P. A. relief employees. Senator ADAMS. As a matter of fact, you are practically restricted. by law to the 5 percent. No; that is one of the excluded items. Mr. BELL. Yes, sir; but I am speaking, not of the administrative expenses, but of the superintendence of the job. That is part of the project work. Senator ADAMS. All right; if there are no other questions, you are excused. STATEMENT OF ARTHUR J. ALTMEYER, CHAIRMAN OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY BOARD Senator ADAMS. Mr. Altmeyer, I think Senator Hale has some inquiries he wishes to direct to you. Senator HALE. I want to find out the present situation about oldage insurance and unemployment insurance, and the numbers that are on the rolls under these two headings. Mr. ALTMEYER. First with regard to unemployment insurance, 22 States and the District of Columbia are now paying benefits. We have daily telegraphic reports as to the number of persons who have filed claims, the number of claims allowed, the number of claims denied, and the number of claims pending. The last report we have carries through last Saturday. As of the close of business last Saturday, 2,476,000 persons had filed claims for benefits. Of that number, action had been taken on 1,352,000. Senator TOWNSEND. What percentage of the population is in those 22 States? Mr. ALTMEYER. About 52 percent. Of the number of determinations, 1,144,000 constituted allowances of claims, and 198,000 constituted denials. Of the number of cases allowed, a great many, of course, will find work before a check is actually issued, because under all these laws there is a waiting period ranging from two to four weeks. However, there had been issued down through last Saturday 747,000 checks. In many instances more than one check has been issued to the same individual; so when you asked me whether 400,000 was a good guess as to the number of separate individuals who have received checks, I said I thought so. Senator HALE. That is unemployment insurance? Mr. ALTMEYER. This is all unemployment insurance. I said I thought that was a good guess. Senator HALE. That has all been done since November 1? Mr. ALTMEYER. Since January 1, with the exception of Wisconsin. Senator HALE. I took November 1 because that was the time the present depression became acute. Mr. ALTMEYER. The benefits only started being payable in all these States, with the exception of Wisconsin, since January 1. Senator HALE. What is the average amount allowed per case? Senator HALE. $10 a month? Mr. ALTMEYER. $10 a week. We estimate that for the present calendar year as a whole, about $225,000,000 will be paid out; and for the first 6 months of this calendar year 90 to 100 million dollars may be paid out. Senator HALE. All of that comes from money paid by the States? Mr. ALTMEYER. Yes. Senator TOWNSEND. What amount of money has been paid into the fund? Mr. ALTMEYER. As of January 31st, there had been paid in by the States $681,000,000. Senator TOWNSEND. And that was paid in by 60 percent of the population? Mr. ALTMEYER. Oh, no; this $681,000,000 covers all of the States. and Territories. Senator TOWNSEND. Oh, they are all paying in? Mr. ALTMEYER. Yes. Senator HALE. You have no way of knowing what percentage of the people come from the W. P. A. rolls; have you? Mr. ALTMEYER. Few of them; because, you see, these people are persons who have developed rights through employment in private industry, and the rights are based upon employment during 1937. I should say, so far, there is not more than a handful from W. P. A. Senator ADAMS. Mr. Altmeyer, to what extent in these other lines of social-security work is there a relief of the Works Progress load? Mr. ALTMEYER. There is very little relief of the Works Progress load in any of the other social-security categories. Old-age assistance, for example, applies to those 65 years of age and over, except that in your State of Colorado it has gotten down to 60. Of course aid to dependent children applies to children up to, usually, the age of 16; and in the case of aid to the blind, most of those are unemployable. The number is small, anyway, in the case of the blind. Senator HALE. Very few come from the W. P. A. rolls? Mr. ALTMEYER. Yes, sir. Do you want me to give you the figures on that, or not? Senator ADAMS. Yes; I suggest that you put them in the record. Senator HALE. I should like to have you give them now, in a general way. Mr. ALTMEYER. I will give you a summary. During December, under the three categories of the Social Security Act, the following persons or cases were being aided: Old-age assistance, 1,582,144. Aid to dependent children, 211,969 families, which covered 527,101 children. Aid to the blind numbered 43,784 cases. Senator HALE. You say very few of these come from the W. P. A. rolls? Mr. ALTMEYER. Yes. Senator HALE. They come, however, from families where some member of the family is on the W. P. A. rolls; do they not? Mr. ALTMEYER. Very, very few. As I recall the figures, a check was made of these various categories, and only 5 or 6 percent are receiving relief. Senator HALE. Only 5 or 6 percent of those who were actually on the list? Mr. ALTMEYER. In these categories; yes. I do not know how many of the 5 or 6 percent that were listed as receiving relief were on W. P. A. Senator HALE. They themselves may not have been getting relief, but some members of the family probably were getting relief. |